EN: A few weeks ago I was able to win an Ebay auction of a lot of 47 vintage patterns from the 60s and 70s, in my size for a steal. A lot of the patterns had not even been used yet and were in pristine conditions. When the postman finally showed up with my treasures I spent quite a while just looking at all of them and wondering what their former owner might have sewn with them. I decided that the first thing I would sew was this dress by The People 181. Some wonderful people on IG informed me, that The People used to be a weekend newspaper and that you could call or write in to receive the patterns in the paper! This Ladies and Gentlemen, is what people used to do before the internet!

EN: When I opened the envelope I was surprised to find all the pieces were already cut out by the factory ( this was one of the patterns that hadn’t been used before), why has this service gone out of fashion? I HATE CUTTING THINGS OUT!!! All I did was iron the paper pieces on a low heat to get rid of the creases. I used a navy blue linen-cotton fabric from Minervacrafts, that I’ve had in my stash for a while, it’s really lovely to work with. As I had enough fabric, I made a quick toile of the bodice and determined, that I needed to shorten the bodice by 1.5 inches and take in the shoulders by 1 inch. The instructions are printed on piece of paper, that also double as the envelope of the pattern itself. There is very little text, but they do tell you everything you need to know and there are 2 illustrations, one for how to cute out the fabric and one on how to lengthen or shorten the bodice. So I did the adjustments to the bodice, the darts and the shoulders and was quite pleased, with how it turned out. I left off the sleeves, as they were ridiculously puffy and made the whole dress look rather clownish! #noregrets I did feel however, that the dress felt a bit dated, as the neckline was very conservative and shoulders were still a bit to long, so I took them in another 1.5 inches, which made the whole dress look a bit more modern. I should have left good enough be, and not have adjusted the arm cycle as well, as it is now a tad bit to low….. oh well, the next time (and there will be a next time) I won’t do that! I either pinked the seams or bound them with red bias binding, for a little bit of a contrast, also I kind of felt, that since I was making up a pattern that was so old, I should stay true to all the finishes from that era.

EN: I’m rather chuffed with the way the dress turned out. I really love the details especially the V-shaped dart (why are they no longer in fashion?) and how the entire pattern came together. All the pattern pieces fit together, all the notches matched up, the instructions were albeit brief but to the point and I had no problem figuring out, what I needed to do and most importantly I didn’t spend hours trying to make poorly drafted pieced turn into a frock of my dreams and not my nightmares. It was a real reminder, that back in the day, pattern companies, employed professionals and really thought about their customers and therefore made products that anyone, whatever their sewing level was, were able to tackle successfully. I feel that a number of Indie-Pattern-Companies (which will remain nameless on this blog) that have sprouted out of the ground in the past few years, could really learn a thing or two from this. I for one have turned into a bit of a pattern snob, if I need to spend hours to make your pattern fit me and I am still not happy with the results, chances are I will not bother with your product again. Ok, now that I’ve gotten that of my chest, I feel so much better!